Guest Post: Top ten movie villains from the 80s – today

Well, now that you’ve read my villains analysis post, these are my top ten favorite/best villains in films since the 80s, I know I left out some well known ones but that’s because most people have already chose them. So I decided to go with some not so well known or no that popular villains in the last 30 years or so. Here goes:

1. Chad from In the Company of Men (1997) – Aaron Eckhart’s first leading role and wow was he great in this movie. He played one of the most despicable characters I’ve ever seen on screen. I truly hated his character and by the end of the movie, I wanted to beat the crap out of him. What’s more disturbing is that these kinds of people do exist in real life. In fact, I had a friend who has the same characteristics as that of Eckhart’s character. I got so annoyed by him that I’m no longer friends with him. But back to this movie, if you’ve never seen it, please give it a rent. And if you didn’t want to smack Eckhart’s character by the time the film’s over, then you may have a problem.

2. Sheriff of Nottingham from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) – Alan Rickman is a great actor and of course he always played a great villain. Since most people named his Hans Gruber or Snape character as their favorite villain, I’m gonna go with his Sheriff of Nottingham character from 1991’s Robin Hood film. The role wasn’t as memorable as Gruber or Snape but he was the only good thing in the movie.

3. Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs (1991) – I saw this film when I was very young and that mirror scene disturbed me so much that I lost my appetite every time that scene came to my head. It’s still disturbing to me now if watch that scene again. Many people would pick Dr. Lecter but he wasn’t the villain in this movie, he was actually helping our heroine trying to capture Buffalo Bill. I was glad the film version cut out the backstory of how Bill became a killer; it made him more mysterious and scary. The book gave away too much information about his life and you ended up symphonizes with him.

4. Clarence Boddicker from Robocop (1987) – Out of all of Kurtwood Smith’s roles, his most memorable one to me has to be this nasty crime boss, he played a stone cold killer with no remorse whatsoever. The scene where he and his gang of thugs tortured and killed Alex Murphy was probably the most disturbing scene in the movie for me. I saw the film when I was ten years old so yeah it was quite disturbing at the time.

5. Magneto from the X-Men films (2000, 2003, 2006) – I loved The X-Men cartoon from the 1990s and Magneto was my favorite villain from the show. So when they finally announced the film version, I was a bit skeptical when they cast Ian McKellen as Magneto. In the comics and cartoon, he’s this muscular character but McKellen pulled it off and now I think of him as Magneto. Let’s hope Fassbender can play the role in the new X-Men film as well as McKellen did.

6. Annie Wilkes from Misery (1990) – Kathy Bates did such an amazing job that every time I see her in other films or TV show, I’d always think of her as Annie. If you think Annie was nasty in the movie, give the novel a read, oh boy she was 3 times nastier in the book.

7. The Terminator from The Terminator (1984) – No one thought that a small budget movie about a time travelling killer cyborg would spawn three sequels but it happened. Thanks largely to Arnold’s turn as the memorable cyborg killer; the film has become a pop icon in American cinemas. Oh yeah this was the film where he uttered his most famous line “I’ll be back.” Here’s a little nugget, Cameron wrote the part of The Terminator as a regular looking person and wanted Arnold for the role of Kyle Reese. Lance Henriksen, who played the cop in the movie, actually auditioned for the Terminator role. But when Cameron finally met Arnold in person, he decided to he wanted Arnold to play The Terminator and offered the role to him. Unbeknownst to Cameron, Arnold wanted to play The Terminator from the beginning and he was going to ask Cameron if he can take that role instead of the Kyle Reese role but Cameron offered him The Terminator role right away and as they say the rest is history. It worked out for great for both of them since both became famous and quite rich after they made this film together.

8. Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men (2007) – Another unstoppable killer on my list, except this one was not a robot but he’s sure act like one didn’t he? I know that this film has its fans and haters; personally I thought it’s a near masterpiece. I’ve seen the film at least 20 times now and I’m always fascinated with the Chigurh character. He’s killer who enjoys killing for the fun of it, in a way he’s very similar to The Terminator. He wants that case of money and he’ll kill whoever was in his way.

9. Darth Maul from Star Wars Episode 1 (1999) – I only include him on this list because he’s the only good thing in this film and I love that light saber battle at the end. The pod race sequence was pretty cool too. That’s all I can say about this film without offending the Star Wars fanatics out there.

10. Karen Crowder from Michael Clayton (2007) – Tilda Swinton’s role as a tough corporate climber executive was one of the most realistic take I’ve ever seen in a film. Why did I say her character was so realistic? Well I’ve worked in big corporations in the last 10 years or so and I dealt with that kind of person many times. In a scene where she first met Clooney’s character and she wasn’t too happy of what Clooney had told her; sort of brought back some bad memories for me. You see I do web design for a living and I have to present my designs to top level executives, a few years back I worked at a large corporation, I won’t name which one, I had to present my design comps of a new site. Well a couple of the executives just told me flat out that they hated the design and didn’t even bother to see the rest of them. Mind you I’d spent hours working on the comps so that was quite a painful experience. Anyhoo, I thought Tilda did a great job playing this kind of character. Now in the movie her character ordered a hit on someone, I don’t know if any of the executives I used to work for did that. I just wanted to make that clear.

Well, that’s my list. Any thoughts about any of my picks? Feel free to share who you think is a memorable movie villains.

Karen Crowder from Michael Clayton certainly was an evil executive, but I liked the way she started out kind of normal, at first you didn’t suspect much about her, especially since she is a woman, but she got creepier and creepier as the film went on, but got her just desserts in the end.

Yeah when I first saw the movie, I thought she might just be someone who’ll just take orders from her boss but then she stepped up and became the person who decides to clean up the mess. Great performance by Swinton.

Like I mentioned before, he was the only good thing in the movie. I thought Costner and Slater were awful in the film. 🙂

I agree, Tilda Swinton played it really ugly in that film and not in an evil laugh kind of way but as a flawed exec on the edge which was so believable. That’s what made it scary. Alan Rickman was the most villainous of villains I’ve seen, such a creep but somehow loveable. Or maybe we just love to hate him.

A fine dastardly list, Ted. Kurtwood Smith’s Boddicker is one of those that really stood out, but his comeuppance was entirely too swift for my blood-thirsty tastes. Aaron Eckhart’s Chad is one I truly despise (in a good-bad way). And as PraireGirl put it so well, Tilda Swinton’s Crowder is one for the ages, along with the underrated film Michael Clayton (I still don’t think it gets the praise it deserves). Thanks for this.

Thanks leopard, yeah I agree I wish Boddicker would put up a good fight against Robocop but the scene where him and his thugs tortured Alex was quite disturbing when I first saw the film when I was 10 years old.

Chad was just a despicable of a person and Aaron nailed that role.

I totally agree about Michael Clayton, it hardly got any attention at all when it opened in theaters. Maybe they should’ve changed the title to something more compelling, a name of the character just wasn’t thrilling to me. But it’s a great film.

Same here, he has a small role in Any Given Sunday and I still think of him as Chad at the time. I think Thank You for Smoking changed my mind about him, even though he was also kind of douche in that film too.

I agree with all of the characters you posted here, but would like to add three more in the nature of “honorable mention.” They are Tom Berenger as Sgt. Barnes in the fantastic Vietnam War film, Platoon. In many ways, it appears that he is a horrible villian (murdering the village woman and also his fellow solder played by Willem DeFoe), but on the other hand, he seems like he is reacting to a horrific situation with horrific acts because of frustration, rage, and circumstances that are far from civilized. The second other character has to be Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street. “Greed is good”, need I say more? Finally, the third character of honorable mention should be Jack Nicholson as Col. Nathan Jessup in A Few Good Men – “You can’t handle the truth!!!”

Ted since you picked Chad (Sweet pick… and I have the movie), Boddiker (That 70’s Show???) and Annie Wilkes (Naked in the hot tub with Jack… I’ll never shake that one)… I’ll leave them out of my top 10.

Mitch Leary in In The Line Of Fire. Malkovich is scary in his comedies. But in a thriller? Probably the most realistic portrayal of a psychopath in a movie other than Travis Bickle. Watch the scene where he tell Clint over the phone to “Show him some GD respect!!!”

Mr. Blonde from what else… Reservoir Dogs. A psycho version of the same character Michael Madson plays in every movie. Tell me you didn’t squirm during the “ear” scene. “Stuck In The Middle With You” will never be the same again.

Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction. I don’t think even the great Meryl Streep could have pulled off what Glenn Close did. What should have been a one-night stand, melodrama turned into a nasty, love gone waaaay wrong story. Poor little bunny.

Alonzo Harris in Traning Day. Denzel took what Training Day should have been an average movie and went and blew it up real good. Slick, cunning, and would shoot you and not lose sleep. Best bad cop since Vic Mackey.

Warden Norton in The Shawshank Redemption. If Bob Gunton doesn’t deliver that absolutely heartless performance as the uncaring warden then I think the ending doesn’t have nearly the same emotion affect that is ultimately does.

Peter & Paul from Funny Games (’97 – German). The young actors faces and mannerisms are forgetable. What they do is not. German director Michael Haneke’s “meditation” on violence as entertainment. You are supposed to walk out or turn away but yet watch this helpless family get tortured by two teenagers because it’s presented as “entertainment”. Why? Conditioning? The point of the film was lost on most people. The end scene on the boat is particularly disturbing in it’s casualness. On par with Irreversible. Not for the faint of heart. You’ve been warned. Hostel this is not.

William Poole aka Bill The Butcher/Daniel Plainview in The Gangs Of New York/There Will Be Blood respectively.
Daniel Day-Lewis… man… do I have to pick just one?
You decide… whose worse? To think one of his his first big roles was the painter Christy Brown who despite cerebral palsy painted with his only his left foot.

Don Logan in Sexy Beast. Gandhi goes postal? Now that’s range. Nastiest bloke you ever have the displeasure of meeting. Has to have the record for most “no’s” in a single sentence. He could kill you with his stare. I’m not kidding. Really.

Bonus: Bill Lumberg in Office Space. I know this is a comedy but if you’ve ever worked in an office you know what I mean. Unmm yeahhh.

Yes – Amon Goeth…I can’t believe that I forgot about Ralph Fiennes in that role – I think I blocked that particular performance out because I almost had PTSD syndrome after seeing it…also, keep in mind, Ralph plays the big V in Harry Potter movies.

I’ll go one step further rtm and say that she is the Streep of this generation! How appropriate that she played Hepburn… the other great actress of the 20th century huh?

The other Kate (Winslett) is the only other actress that is in her class. She has a harder time hiding in her roles cause shes so damn pretty. I think she does comedy much better too which is hard… especially for a woman. I think she could have acted in the 40’s as well as Cate. Cate’s Hepburn to Kate’s Grace Kelly.

Since she’s my favorite actress maybe I’ll blog about her performances when I get it up… under construction.

Ruth… I’m an idiot… I just put together the Ruth and rtm are the same person. Doh. I’m 42 also so senility is right around the corner for us. An intelligent, well written blog. Kudos. I found it on IMDb. My bible.

I have few peers when it comes to film junkies where I live (Pittsburgh). So you can’t imagine how much I enjoy this. I’m going through the blog now so you’ll be sick of me soon.

Saw you don’t like horror movies. May I ask why? Nightmares or the fact that it’s one of the hardest genres to do next to good love stories, dramadies (the best are usually on TV – Aaron Sorkin’s the best) and the occasional dance musical. lol. Maybe I can change your mind a little.

Ha..ha.. no problem Dave, I don’t expect you to know that as you’re a newbie 🙂 THANK YOU for your kind words about my blog, how very kind of you… I’m blessed to have amazing guest writers like Ted who contribute posts from time to time. We have quite a diverse range of taste (as do the other guest bloggers), which is kind of the idea to keep things varied. Movies is such a vast art form that one person can’t possibly write about every single aspect of it.

I don’t like gory horror flicks as I don’t have the stomach for blood and gore, but if it’s an intelligent horror like The Sixth Sense I guess I don’t mind. I even appreciate 28 Days Later which is quite scary, but it’s so much more than a run-of-the-mill horror flick. I did watch The Exorcist a long while ago and still haunts me to this day, that’s why I avoid movies like that in general.

Kurtwood Smith latched onto and made the character of Clarence Boddiker his own in ‘Robo-Cop”.

Always thought that Ted Levine’s ‘Buffalo Bill’ was a far more intesting character than Hopkins’ Lecter and that Brian Cox owned the role in Michael Mann’s ‘Manhunter’.

Would also like to toss around a few old school names for more than Honorable Mention.

Alan Arkin’s Harry Roat Jr, from Scarsdale taunting blind Audrey Hepburn during the last minutes of ‘Wait Until Dark’.

Robert Shaw’s Mister Blue in the original ‘The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three’. Controlled the hijacking and staying one step ahead with just the sound and tone of his voice.

George Sanders in just about any role handed him. Though the one that stands out is as Addison DeWitt in ‘All About Eve’. Though not overtly threatening, Sanders could intimidate and shred with a glance or spoken word delivered so well that we all asked for more.

M. Emmett Walsh’s private eye, Loren Visser in the Coen brothers’ premiere ‘Blood Simple’ created such a memorably crooked character you could feel the slime and flop sweat sloughing off of him. Somewhat amplified from an earlier role as Dustin Hoffman’s parole officer, Frank Earl in ‘Straight Time’.

Left Verbal out because of his popularity. Forgot to put on my exclusion list. Best film noir since Orson Welles Touch Of Evil in ’58. Welles played a great bad cop. Little known fact. He actually put on all that weight to play the role of greasy Sheriff Hank Quinlan 22 years before Deniro did in Raging Bull.

Jack or Ted what did you think of the remake of Pelham 123? Tony Scott is up there with Michael Bay for me so you can imagine what I thought. Of all the directors who were influenced by MTV… he’s the worst. He has some talent, but can’t just set the camera down or stop editing.

Here’s his high concept formula as I see it. Get a big, veteran, actor like Cage, Deniro, Redford, Hopper, Rourke, Cruise, Walken, Hackman, Denzel, or Hackmen AND Denzel. lol.

Shake the sh*t out of the camera, throw in some unnecessary zooms and add some sun flares. Found this in IMDB under trademarks: “Frequently has sunlight flashing at characters to make the picture more effective” Effective? Huh. I guess that’s one school of filmmaking.

His brother Ridley has a rain and celing fan fetish. See Blade Runner or Black Rain. lol.

Pluss only he could fumble a Tarantino script with Walken, Hopper, Gandalfini, Samuel L. Jackson, Oldman, Brad Pitt, Chris Penn, Sizemore, Kilmer and Corrigan. Who wants to see Quintin’s version of True Romance? I do! Believe me the infamous “eggplant” scene was all on the page and in the actors.
How about he remakes Natural Born Killers while were at it?

Didn’t mean to hijack the post Ted and Jack Deth. Sorry for the rant. Scott and Bay really set me off and I’m currently unemployed. Bay’s similar. Just with more explosions and jive-talking bots. lol.

I didn’t really care for Taking of Pelham remake, I actually wrote an article about hack directors, both Bay and T. Scott made my list. If you click on FC Contributors and then click on my name, you’ll see my list of articles I’ve written for this site. You’ll find my hack directors article there. Give a read and let us know what you think. I’m sure you’ll enjoy what I wrote about Bay and Scott. 🙂

I’d love to see Tarantino’s version of True Romance and Natural Born Killers. I’m big a QT fan, can’t wait for his new western flick.

Great catch on Orson Welles in ‘Touch Of Evil’. Love the near record breaking tracking shot (Thankfully updated and clear of credits) that sets the film’s tone and introduces Welles’ Hank Quinlan. Just slightly more crafted than Welles’ introduction as Harry Lime in ‘The Third Man’.

Can’t disagree with your dissertation of Tony Scott or Michael Bay, who have substituted CGI and loud, massive explosion for character development and plot exposition. More’s the pity.

Being something of a purist, I’ve avoided the remake of ‘…Pelham 123’. Since Joseph Sargent’s direction gave you a flavor for NYC and a feeling of dread and claustrophobia for those in the subway car. Besides, Travolta hit his prime as a bad guy with ‘Broken Arrow’, as Tommy Lee Jones hit his with ‘Under Siege’.

Yeah… loved Tommy Lee in that video with Pam Anderson on the boat… oh… the OTHER one. Loved the remake of The Fugitive even though I think Ford seems like a pompus ass. He’s like Hans Solo w/o the charm. Sadly the only thing I remember about the movie is the is the birthday cake scene.

Let’s not forget about the NKOTB Roland Emmerich… the innovator of disaster porn. See 2012 and skip the tallking parts. A much better experience.

Yeah Tarantino resurecting his career may have been a mistake in hindsight. But he has a great track record: Pam Grier, Robert Forrester (check out the little known movie gem Diamond Men with (speaking of NKOTB) the chubby, balding Wahlberg. lol. Great little indie.), David Carridine, Lawrence Tierney who is bat sh*t insane. He was the inspiration behind the Simpson’s using Bart to make prank phone calls to Moe at the bar. Find the movie RED on the interweb. It’s short and uses stills like La Jetee with sound overlaid. Chris Gore from Film Threat made back in the day. Based on actual calls made to a bar. Who else? David Bowie’s Cat People…lol.

I guessed 3 and one was so good I didn’t even notice it. See below. Enjoy. You’ll have to find some as they were pulled but it’s worth it.

WOW! Watch how they do it.

Touch of Evil’s use of implied rape, hard drug use (heroin) and lesbianism was probably lost the crowd back in the day. Way ahead of his time. Other than Cape Fear and The Virgin Spring rape was non-existant in films back then. Speaking of rape I hear they’re remaking Straw Dogs except it’s set in the deep south. That was a “fun” film. Yikes. Trailer:

Alex from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE is really one of the most purely evil characters in cinema history. The fact that the movie sort of idealizes him takes away from how evil is really is.

I agree with Dan^^ on Daniel Day-Lewis’ character from THERE WILL BE BLOOD, Daniel Plainview. His cold, self-serving personality creates one of the most subtly disturbing characters ever conceived.

Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello in THE DEPARTED. That performance must have been modeled after Lucifer himself. Costello is my definition of Evil incarnate.

Say what you will about this movie, but Jason Isaccs as Colonel Tavington in THE PATRIOT is one of the most brutally unforgivable characters ever.

Again, to repeat Dan, Amon Goeth from SCHINDLER’S LIST. Ralph Fiennes is the stuff of nightmares in that film.

Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito in GOODFELLAS. Funny like a clown? Not so much.

Forrest Whitaker as Idi Amin in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND. I dont care that this is based on a true story, Whitaker is downright scary. A well deserved Oscar in my opinion.

Is it cheap to put Nicholson on here twice? Not if its for his roll in THE SHINING. Jack Torrence is one of the most recognizable icons of fear in pop culture today.

Joaquin Phoenix as Commodus in GLADIATOR. I remember being deeply disturbed by this performance, especially when he smothers Richard Harris. Evil evil evil.

AMERICAN HISTORY X. Edward Norton during the first half of this movie is terrifying, because its realistic. The scene, right after the curb stomp, where he turns and looks at his brother while the cops cuff him…the expression on his face is like looking at the devil…

Agree about those three, they all seem so darn smug, especially Penn. I don’t see him as that good of an actor either, in a lot of the films I saw him in, I like the other actors more (i.e. The Thin Red Line, Fair Game, etc.)

Kris Kristofferson’s performance as the town’s frighteningly crooked God with a gun sheriff, Charlie Wade in John Sayles’ ‘Lone Star’.

Though Kristofferson had about a half hour on screen. He radiated pure, untouchable evil every second he was there.

If you add ‘creepy or sick’ to the menu, an Honorable Mention should go out to then up and coming star, Jeremy Renner (SWAT, The Hurt Locker). For his ‘sudden desire to take a shower afterwards’ performance of serial sicko Jeffrey Dahmer in ‘Dahmer’.

I love the addition of Annie Wilkes from Misery. I read that book more times than is healthy when I was a kid and was totally scared by the warped character of Annie. When the film was announced I had to see it, and never thought anyone could bring Wilkes to life as well as my imagination, but she did an awesome job…very scary.

Custard… I do sound so darn selfish don’t I? Ted is a free human being who has free will to contribute to whomever he likes. I’m just blessed to have gotten to know him and to receive his kind offerings of amazing posts! Same w/ my other contributors… they’re all way better than me and could easily have their own blogs. As I told you in my DM, Ted knows soooo much about movies, too good NOT to be shared 😀

LOL, no worries I’m frelancer. Ha ha. Again Custard if you ever want me to write up anything about home theater stuff, just shoot me an e-mail. I’m also super geeky with that kind of stuff and would love to share my knowledge with your readers.

Why did everyone not include Emperor Palpatine / Darth Sidious from 5 of the 6 Star Wars movies? He was the cause of death and suffering of TRILLIONS of lives. He turned one of the greatest Jedi into the most horrific Sith in the Star Wars history. Darth Maul is nothing but a tool – and in saying so I mean a weapon to be utilized like a gun. Darth Vader is also a weapon to be utilized, but has his own agenda which makes him much more dangerous. Darth Sidious / Palpatine is the one pulling all of the strings. He is the ultimate manipulator.

Great choice to pick Clarence from Robocop – he is such a chilling villain. I would have had to pick Hannibal Lector because, even though he isn’t the killer the FBI is searching for, he does become the monster we know he really is by the end of the movie. Who else would wear someone’s own face as a mask! Eek!

Hello I’m Ruth!

Film is in my blood. LOVE movies of all genres, from Jane Austen to James Bond. Official blogger for the Twin Cities Film Fest (TCFF). I’ve wrote and produced my first short film » HEARTS WANT in 2017 and currently working on developing the full story as a feature film.